The invention relates to the field of taxidermy, and more specifically to the separation of skin from the cartilage of an animal's ear in a procedure known to taxidermists as “opening” the ear. Opening the ears is typically the most time consuming aspect of removing the skin (i.e. hide) from an animal's skull for tanning and mounting. The skin or hide as thus removed is commonly called the cape.
Heretofore, opening of the ears has been carried out with a scalpel and/or a conventional “ear opener”. The scalpel is employed to tediously and laboriously cut away the connecting tissue between the skin and cartilage of an ear. The commercially available ear opener looks much like needle nosed pliers, including a pair of handles and a corresponding pair of elongated jaws that work upon a pivot. Unlike regular pliers, however, squeezing the handles of the ear opener causes the jaws to spread apart rather than come together. In use, the jaws, as inserted between the skin and cartilage, are intended to tear the skin from the cartilage as they open or spread apart. However, this requires considerable force by the taxidermist in squeezing the handles, and is not very effective or fast in separating the skin from the cartilage.